I have noticed something over the course of the last three months while on orders at my Guard unit. Every time Marine Corps jets land, they always do a flyby first before they land. And they always fly in pairs. I have not noticed the same thing from Air Force aircraft.

I have seen AF jets in pairs, but they aren't always that way. But I have never seen a Marine Corps jet without a wingman.

Any of you military fly guys have an opinion or firsthand knowledge on this?

Other than "practice", 'cause I've only ever seen it at a military field, or an air show.

An overhead approach is the standard visual approach for fighter aircraft.

About the only time you don't see them do it is when they're directed by the tower to make a strfaight in approach only or if it's IFR and they're doing an ILS or a TACAN approach.

And I've seen plenty of overheads done at civilian airfields. Happens mostly at airports that also host an ANG fighter unit too.

Done more then a few in C-141's, usually when we're doing "tactical" stuff like airdrops and stuff. (250 KIAS, throttles idle at approach end, gear and approach flaps on the downwind and landing flaps on short final.)

Don't know about current generation procedures, but as the previous poster said, it was done as SOP in Century series fighters as a way to gain seperation in the landing sequence effciently, and so conserve fuel. Fuel was almost always foremost as a concern in the Century series. It was also cool, and fun, but getting down quickly was the main reason.

Motoring in on final in an F15 at approach speed burns a whole-lotta-gas. Keeping your speed up to the airport gets you there faster and is more efficient. The break bleeds off speed. Its a fast way to get a lot of aircraft close to the airport and on the ground quickly. The f16s at Fresno do it multiple times per day and almost always ask for the "SFO" Simulated Flame Out.

The f16s at Fresno do it multiple times per day and almost always ask for the "SFO" Simulated Flame Out.

Though SFOs and overhead patterns have similarities, they are completely different approach procedures serving completely different purposes. The SFO is a practice emergency procedure where the overhead is a standard VFR traffic pattern that (as others have pointed out) is an efficient means of sequencing any quantity of multi-ship flights into an airfield and inserting appropriate spacing for landing.

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